St Johns, US VI

Hi everyone. I almost dont want to ask this but i am giving you all a chance to tell me the TOP TEN things to do on St Johns and also St Thomas. I am most interested in whether any of you have been there and if you have swum open water. Do i need to watch out for weird jelly fish and things like that? I know there is alot of good snorkling so I am sure the water is good for the most part.

So...post away. And you dont have to post 10 things, but one or two if you have thoughts!

Thanks!!

And yea honeymoon...we are going!

Progress

Well after many ups and downs this last week and especially saturday...we are back on track.

The TPN ( total perenteral nutrition) and the NG ( naso gastric) tube came out. The IV is still hanging around since he had 24 hours of severe dehydration. But overall he is doing so much better. The food is still not settling too well and even tho he knows he has to try to eat real food, after the 3-4 day stint of eating->blockage->throw up its hard to make yourself eat.
FYI if i lost some of you just take it as this...he had a block in his small intestine near the Ileum so the digested food just backed up. How awful. And fortunately his body has stopped producing so much fluid and we think the "twist" in his bowel is now unkinked. That is what the delay is.
A surgery like this has a huge risk of dehydration and we saw that first hand friday night into saturday when is already low BP dropped to 80. Crap.

So here we go, body...lets do it this time!!! GO RICH!!!

As for the update on what really annoys me...I think that I have another one. Running by ipoded runners or riders ( which is even worse) and they act all startled like it is my fault I startled them. Um HELLO. You are the one with the headset on! It isnt like i should have to run with a megaphone!

Getting a flat saturday, then having the car not start really was the point where I surrendered and just cried. Now I have peroneal tendonitis in my left leg from pushing my bike up hills in my cleats to get a ride home. And yes I had a spare but i couldnt get the staple out of the tire for the life of me that sucker was in there for good. At 32 degrees and 8am I had no fingers after 10 minutes.

Ok then...we have to thank the cast of Arrested Development for keeping us laughing this week. I cant wait for the movie. If You havent seen this series go get it. Watch it from the beginning...It is well worth it! Your dysfunctional family will seem pretty normal after this series!

Ya know what really bugs me...

Random post here:

You know what really bugs me....

-When there are ENFORCERS in the left lane that will only go 64mph when the speed limit is 65. I mean really? I want to go 69 or 70, let me thru!

-That i actually bought the DREAMGIRLS cd, omg that is a bad CD. There is one song worth listening to. I must have been bonking or crazy when i paid good $ for that one. I put it in the CD player with all this driving and was like "who bought this?" Oh. Me.

-A nice October day ( finally ) and i realize our October has been the coldest on record. It bugs me that all my friends are trying to train for Clearwater and they are likely doing an 8 hour day today to make up for all the lost time.

-I think i need to start up the humidifier.

-The heat cycles on and off so randomly in this room it is like a sauna then it is like an ice box.

-I have been banned from my trainer. ( haha kidding, actually this is fine but it makes getting outsided to ride a chore)

-Seeing Marion Gaborik Killing it with the Islanders when he was "Injured" all last season with the WILD. Um ok, yea.

-I already used the "Coffee rant" so i guess i had better lay off Starbucks and Caribou. I am actually wanting to approach then each for a sponsorship...or better yet one each year. See if there is a direct correlation between which cup o joe i drink and how i do at races. I bet Elf, Mary and a few others...?? would like to be a part of this controlled ( NOT) experiment.

-That the action movies available at the hospital are all PG 13 or so they seem, no blood and guns, AND that the TV Shows available are all DORA or Hannah Montana. Now...I have a soft spot for Dora. My lovely adoreable Nephew WILL's first words?

BACK-PACK...seriously.

So as to not sound like I am having a rough day and to be honest I screamed today driving when i saw the 30 miles to Rochester sign..so I am having a rough day...but

You know what really makes me smile:

-Getting outside on the 3rd floor deck with Rich for some sunshine. The security guy was so nice to let us out and when i told him that we really appreciated it bc Rich was going to jump off the edge..

Ha, he did laugh but was a bit less sure that I was stable enough to be wheeling the IV pole.

-My lululemmon clothing that has kept me fashionably comfortable. Plus Rich LOVES my Lulu GROOVE pants! Gotta look sharp for the patient.

-Despite not thinking Farve was a good idea for us, He is really really making MN smile. (along with his receivers and the rest of the team, I know i know.)

-My sister and my parents and my out of town sister ( who by the way just did a race in houston and i want to know what happened..Heide!!! CALL ME!) and my brother and RUBY are just so suppportive and making me food and doing odd errands. THANK YOU! I LOVE YOU ALL!

-The leaves today on my ride were so beautiful. I had a nice ride, that made me smile. Even tho my fingers got a tiny bit cold, but at least they werent ice blocks and I smile when i know that I have yet to use the chemical heaters...man it is going to be a long winter at this rate!

-Rich hasnt thrown up yet today.

-Hopefully he wont.

-When i come back tomorrow I can get more popcorn at the subway level shopping area. It is closed on the weekend and there is this great Corn place that has what they call CHICAGO MIX...Um I thought it was MN mix:) I pick all the cheese and regular corn out. then eat a caramel corn. I think the best ratio is 5-6 cheese/plain to 1 Caramel.

-Time to end this post bc I am smiling at how odd that last paragraph is. Gotta end on a smile.

TGIF

Is it really friday? Wow time flies.

So I was swimming this morning and thinking about all the things I am grateful for:

Rich..I would spend three pages on this so just say RICH.

My wonderful supportive friends and family

Rich's family, soon to be MY family too..legally I mean...so wonderful and supportive as well.

My blogger friends, some of you may think i am stalking you and i dont even know you but I have a bit more time on my hands lately to read all your fun and crazy stories! If I comment about how wimpy you are when it is 45 degrees, dont take it seriously. I just have lost my filter this last week:)

My parents especially who I feel have been so lucky to be in good health for so long. Mom, you had that little run in with Cancer a few years ago but at the ripe age of 77yo you beat that bad boy and are now running strong. Dad, you still amaze me and i think you should still sign up for a 5k and beat all the 50 yo's and win your 80-85 AG. You could SO go to Kona!

My co-workers. I work for a wonderful Non-Profit and my co-workers have just been so wonderful and supportive. I dont go to one site and i pretty much multi-task with different sites and management employees. It is a great job and i appreciate the flexbility it allows me, but i sometimes wonder if i really have a home base since i office from home. I sure found out that I do have a CORE support with my work even if i dont see them from 9-5 everyday.

The staff at Mayo..we call the MD's the three amigos, or the SUITS. This is a teaching hospital so with the lead Surgeon we get the chief resident and the 1st year resident AND the PA. They come in "the suits" and I spend most my time trying to break them and make them laugh. I did try this pre-surgery when i cracked a Steve Carrel 40 YO virgin joke about me waxing Rich's belly. And nobody smiled. But me. Ok save those for POST surgery. Now I have cracked all of them at least once. Gotta have some fun ya know. Everyone here is top notch. I mean that. Nobody wants to be here and from the lead Surgeon to the volunteers that come around to give you hand massages ( yes I am serious) this place is the best. Hands down I would come back here if i had to.

Starbucks versus Caribou. Granted I have cut back and i dont drink alot of coffee to begin with but I have had a direct back to back challenge going on with these two, each is within 1/2 block of the hospital. Now you may have your favorites but to be frank, I would not pick either one of them. Yup I am spoiled by my NINA's coffee and the local indy shops I support.

But that being said I only drink espresso and i dont do the foofy drinks. So head to head on the capps..both places seem to think that a dry capp means "oh just dont fill it up as high"

NO this should mean you actually have to make foam. And this means that you actually have to HOLD the pitcher and not just WEDGE itunder the foam head and let it scald and make a high pitched scream. I did cave and order a pumpkin pie latte the other day when i was feeling a bit like I wanted to shop :) ( hahaha, i dont like to shop) and it was good till i got to the place where the sweetener had settled. BLECK. then it tasted like melted candy corn with HFCS mixed in. I am going back to the Jasmine Tea for now, and then back to my tried and true espresso or cold press from my indy shops at home.

Ok that was a coffee rant, wasnt it. But i guess I am thankful for them, in a sick sorta way:)

Thankful for... continues now:

Sun, it came out today.

Jen, for giving me workouts to help make me feel normal and reminding me that i met all my goals this summer so i need to get my head in THIS game..Rich's game and take care of myself too.

My own bed. The cot in this room was awful.

KO, for the swimsuit and the ongoing support.

My own health. I would be lying if i didnt say that this has been hard. I think you kinda buck up and get thru it and rely on the IAMSTRONG...motto but at some point i think i have had a few little pressure releasing quakes and hope that there isnt THE BIG ONE...waiting to come. ( ok seismic jokes may not be funny to those of you living on a fault line...New Madrid is next to go, so San Andreas can relax)

And I am getting too longwinded so time to sign off.

Rich is having a rough day and we hope that once he is past the 72 hour mark things will be better. ( FYI..inflammation peaks at 72 hours so if you crash your bike or have some sort of acute injury..just know day3 isnt gonna be good, but after that you will be better) He is back on NPO ( no food by mouth) and we have to get him rehydrated bc his insides are kicking out too much fluid. He is walking fine, not resting much bc of all the pokes, but I keep telling him how lucky we are that we came here for a 2nd opinion. Thank GOD!

Thanks for reading my hodge podge and for all you folks that are not wanting to ride outside when it is 45, buck up and get out there for a bit...then finish it off inside...:)

Tuesday update

Quick update.

Rich came thru his surgery around noon and out of recovery around 3pm. The surgeon was quite pleased and said it went very well. Nothing out of the ordinary. We await a few more path reports on the nodes but for now..he is clear. Lots of healing to come, and then another procedure/surgey in 3 months but we are blessed and thankful for the care we have received thus far. Keep the prayers coming!

Is it really here?

Winter, that is.

Congrats to all the Kona finishers, the Chicago Marathoners and to all those in the Midwest that have had snow and flurries this weekend. We should get a finisher medal for having the courage to get out of bed.

I have been really sore still after that 1o miler. I was emailing around about what supplements to take and all that and have come to the conclusion that i just need to rest and not worry about it. Deep rest. That isnt something I am too experienced with. When I played tennis all the time you didnt really need DEEP rest. So when Jen said NO TRAINER in October I knew she meant it! And yes It did snow while i was riding today!

So what else is new...?

Rich's daughter is running the Chicago Marathon today and I have not heard yet how it went for her! I hope she had a a memorable race and I am really proud of her no matter what! Horray Emily!

The Twins really bummed me out last week and tonight I will hope they can rally against those Yankees!

Ok signing off for now. More next week from Mayo!

More pics and nervous energy

So I have more pics. I am not usually this into posting pics of myself but it is my blog and maybe bc it seems like racing pics mean I have a bit of control It makes me feel better to recall these efforts. Not that they were fully enjoyable..But actually they were in that weird odd way that we all can relate to.

This one below totally shows what my sister calls Julia's HYENG face. Can you see that i am totally focused on that red mat and actually am truly in the pain locker. And so glad to be done. I think this is the closest i came to hurling on a run. Luckily my Gel stayed put.

And in all this madness of real life I found this picture. Why, you ask, did she post this?

Well in the midst of the fruit basket of life being turned upside down I cancelled alot of wedding things...florist, reception, music, and the invites have not been sent. We thought about sending an "Unsave the date" card. Haha. But what i didnt cancel....is my highlight and cut appt.

I mean IF IF IF we can still get married in November there is NO WAY I am wearing my hair in the long winter dishwater blonde mop. I mean a girl has to put her foot down sometime.

The hair will look good and ya know. F Cancer. No way I am cancelling that hair appt!

More IronGirl photos...

My friend Steve in a Speedo sent me these pics from Irongirl. I especially like the one of me taking the corner hot on my bike! Woohoo.

Start of the race wave # 8? I dont know, but we had some traffic.

I am digging the pony pig tails. Good call for the Du races and my helmet stays on better.



Smiling for the camera. Ok there are some more from the 10miler if i can figure out how to get them I will post them too. I have major suffer face on those. And yes TODAY I have a suffer face as I am REALLY sore. I have orders to rest till my legs are back so that is actually OK. I can swim and ride a bit. No worries.
Life is clipping along and we head to Mayo thursday for more pre-surgery education. This weekend we have lotsa mellow stuff planned, my parents are being honored at the Dodge Nature Center dinner/auction so we will go to that and clap loudly and proudly for my mom and dad, who btw can take down a tree with his chainsaw nearly as well as those Alaskan lumberjacks....


But my dad is 82... so haha he wins...

and is a total stud, here is is at the July 4th cabin party and he has a fun jestor's hat on:)


And of course saturday is Stalk Kona Day!!! and cheer on all the neat people enjoying their day in Kona. Oh and PRAY to the Volcano Gods that WE dont get snow. Yup. It's in the forecast.
Oh and plan a trip or 3 for this winter!

Update and TCM 10 miler

Ok so I usually say "this is gonna be a short post," but this time i mean it. ( um, sure Julia)
We had a good week of MD appts and scheduling things and just really really feeling like we were being HOVERED over by our friends, our faith and by incredible people that love and support us. Even some that we dont know. So once again, thanks. We feel the support, we really do.

The party last sunday was incredible. I mean i cant even tell you how special it is to have all your wonderful family ( minus the out of town siblings...sorry...) and close friends all there celebrating us and our commitment to each other. Rich put my wedding ring on a gold chain and gave it to me just so that any possible thoughts of indefinite postponement of the wedding were dispelled. I mean really...what can i say to that. Of course I have run the gamut of feeling selfishly sad that our wedding may not happen to feeling utter and complete panic that it may not happen as planned bc of some very serious health issues. At the same time I am a bit giddy about the possibility of a smaller and more spontaneous wedding if he is up to it. Kinda fun to not worry about place settings and what people are eating! Heck we may have a reception at a great pizza place.."order what you want, as much of it as you want...sure get a pitcher of Surly per person, no problem!" Ha!

We have been at Mayo and got some good news that may allow Rich to have a little bit less invasive or lifestyle changing surgery. This is all good! I mean I love the MD's we have met up here but when you go down to MAYO it is a smooth and professional operation. I guess my thought on surgeons is that they dont want to screw up and that they have healthy ( um , ok) egos. So take that into acct and you have to say that a well known surgeon isnt gonna say he can do something confidently unless he can. Right? So yea! We hope for a surgery next week and then we REALLY PRAY that there is no sign of cancer so there is no chemo and radiation. That would be the best gift ever! It has been a hard stresful time bc we want to be aggressive so that there is the smallest chance of recurrence but at the same time we dont want to over treat it. And to let go of the fear of Cancer recurring is hard. I mean..once you have had cancer there is always that fear...of "when will it come back?"

So...To keep Rich busy i have had him up early and running around at races:) This sunday he picked me up at 5:50am and i said "just think, next sunday you dont have to do this.." and then i thought "this may be more appealing than being in a hospital bed tho.." lovely :( Julia.

I had a hard week. Just tired and the weather changed and i was SOO surprised i didnt get sick. I had a few days where i woke up feeling like "ruh-roh...here it comes.." and Jen just kept saying "All you need to do is get your legs back for sunday..." Well since I did my ONE run on thursday, a measily 5 miles with a few pickups, I had no idea if i had any legs or not. I rode the trainer for an hour and after 15 minutes was bored silly and realized it is time to update the Itunes. NOW.
I am not good at riding and watching TV or long movies, I just get antsy. music all the way with something on the TV on mute. I digress....

So I went into today with "See what happens, Go for it. but be ok to LET IT GO..if you feel icky."
I have also been having some sympathetic GI issues...last week Rich had to do all this fasting and drinking stuff and at one point he didnt eat for more than 48 hours. And rich loves to eat. I mean that in a healthy way. He has been good for me in so many ways and one is that he has a healthy view of food and a healthy appetite. So i had to drive him down to mayo and thought " I am going to not eat this morning and support him.............." Ok that lasted about 30 minutes. And he agreed that one of us had to have normal blood sugars to make decisions and drive. Lol. I also realized that was dumb. I wanted to eat!

So anyways...( see short post, right?) saturday and early this AM I was having some rumbling and was thinking "why? come on!" but it was all ok and i got some food in me EARLY and then had my gel 45 min before the race and was fine! phew. Ok now the clif notes will start:
Pre race, lovely view of the st paul skyline.
We start in downtown mpls and run to st paul. Shortcut to st paul! ( as opposed to running the full marathon. poor souls.)


So this is crossing the bridge just after coming up Franklin Hill (mile 3-4?). At this point i am still under 7 min miles and as i see Rich I hear this "damn." I knew i was moving too fast for him. haha.

so here i see him and say "take it NOW." and laughed. This was coming up near St thomas. A nice little uphill that kinda just looks so easy but really is the start of the false flat for the next 3 miles. And this is where things started to get a bit ugly. I had gone thru the 5 mile mark at 34:54 or so and was thinking...hey, ok. When i went thru the 6 mile mark at 42:05 i was thinking..ok getting tired, still working uphill a bit but i can still see Julie Hull ahead of me. dont lose her.


At William Mitchell I was chasing Jules and thinking..."keep going keep going..." I went thru the
7 mile mark around 49:35 and at that point kinda let go of the 70 min goal. I just mentally let go of it and stopped looking at my watch. But I also sped up. I just figured that if I could hold a VERY uncomfortable pace from mile 8-9 I could GUT out a VERY VERY uncomfortable pace for a mile. I mean really, you can do anything for a mile, despite wanting to fall into Half IM run pace I didnt let myself.


Plus these nice folks came out to watch so I wanted to run fast! Ruby has no interest in running obviously. She is all about the hands on petting :)

So as we head down John Ireland ( yes downhill! but a looong ways, you can see the finish but you cant really get there as fast as you would like. or say as you can on your bike!) I see the clock. I hadnt thought about the clock for 2 miles and was just oblivious to everything...there was a GIANT MN blow up VIKING and also a HUGE AMERICAN FLAG that i totally missed till we walked home)
The clock said 1:09:14. HUH?
Ok then..I can do this...at the same time thinking that if it is more than a 200 yard distance i cant do it but i just started to HAUL it down the road.

I tried not to look up at the clock but it seemed like i was moving ok. and the clock wasnt moving that fast. I mean I really was amazed. Still I was over one mat and knew that the 2nd mat, about 10 feet past the first was the finish mat. Dang it...come on..SPRINT!!!

I hit my watch after i kinda got my leverage and...1:10:00.
HA!
I dont know my chip time and nor can i verify that i am not all messed up and I actually ran 1:10:01 but whatever. Close enough:)

Congrats to all running, thanks to all spectating and keep on prayin!
PS so what is up next for me? You ask?
Surgery
Wedding
Honeymoon
Planning 2010!